2016 Free Dining Watch

[black562]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

Riverside may also be excluded for some dates.

 

[VACamm]

Yes...Monday. I need to shake this headache. Looks like it's going to skip Visa again.

I hope you feel better Black

 

[VACamm]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

Yaaay! This sounds WONDERFUL!!! Thanks Black !!

 

[ml sumner]

They have a bridge which makes it shorter. But the bridge was closed when we were there

It was closed when we were there too and we stayed in Martinique. That walk to the pool and food court was loooooong!!

 

[Mom2Stitch]

My shirt I'll be searing to DW the first day. https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/292257-stitchpool

I MUST get this for my DS!! That is awesome!

 

[nicynot]

That would be bizarre. We know Disney schedules extra phone staff on the days they plan a promo release. Would they want to pay EXTRA staff whatever the weekend rate is? I will put nothing past Disney's quest to try to trick we who speculate about their "plans" but .... it would make more sense to pay the M-F rate to the larger than usual staff. Especially given the recent cutbacks in park employees.

i don't get extra pay just to work a weekend shift, no one else should hahahahaha

 

[PeterPanFan123]

South American chatter is showing Monday 4/25 it is.

“If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart..."― Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess. Thank you Black for always being so generous with your information. You don't have to share anything, but you do, and have year after year. I'm sure good things will come to you due to your generosity. Thanks again!

 

[lacy1101]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

Do you think this is legit enough that I should go ahead and switch from POFQ to CSR before Monday?

 

[Just Love Disney]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

Thanks so much! Boo that no October dates were added though. Holding out for a possible RO discount. Any rumors on that front?

 

[black562]

Now for the bad news.

Riverside MAY be excluded for some dates.

 

[dbennett3899]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

No October dates?! Shocking!

 

[plutolovr]

I have a question for those who have done this before. I asked on another thread but didn't phrase it right so trying again-
I have my hotel booked for 8/22-8/26 at the Pop. I got a great rate. I intend to (promo or not) purchase 4 day Park Hopper tickets. I didn't book as a package because 1) it kept trying to sell me 5 day Park Hopper instead of 4, 2) I had heard about this possible deal and wanted to wait to book tickets in case I needed to upgrade it as a whole, and 3) at the time of booking I wasn't sure if I was going to need to cancel.
So- in light of this possibly dropping on Monday, do I need to go ahead and book my 4 day Park Hopper now and then see if my current room rate and dates qualify for the dining or wait and do the whole thing at once if they do? I am traveling solo, so it may well turn out that I come out better sticking with my current rate and buying food or I might get lucky. Any opinions welcome!

 

[VACamm]

Now for the bad news.

Riverside MAY be excluded for some dates.

I kind of figured that as they've excluded it before. We are going to try for CBR this year..... if not it will be back to CSR which we LOVE!

 

[sahm2two]

Now for the bad news.

Riverside MAY be excluded for some dates.

Same as last year? I'm hoping for Riverside with a September 30th check in

 

[princess jasmine 76]

Here's the details they're posting.

8/23-10/1
11/15-11/21
11/26-11/28
12/10-12/21

Add-on required (park hopper or waterpark)

Values get quick service, Mods/Deluxe get regular plan

Exclusions: French Quarter, Mermaid rooms at AOA, Bay Lake Tower, Grand Floridian Villas and 3 Bedroom Villas

Thank you! So sorry to ask a question that I think I already know the answer to...but DVC is always excluded from free dining, correct? My family usually stays at Pop during free dining but this year we have an opportunity to book a 1 bedroom villa at the Boardwalk using a friend's points that she is not using herself (we will be paying her but she is offering us a very generous price). There is no chance that we would be able to apply free dining to our trip, correct? We may actually think about going back to Pop for the free dining if this is the case...the free food for our family may be of more benefit to us than the extra space etc. Thanks in advance!

 

[Elsaalltheway]

I MUST get this for my DS!! That is awesome!

They have him as Wolverine, Iron man, Han Solo, Yoda and the evil Spiderman too.

 

[twoolle]

Well on the chance that POR isn't excluded, I'm back to trying to decide between CBR and POR. I loved CBR, kids loved the pool. How does POR's pool compare? And everyone talks about how big CBR is but looking at a map, POR looks like the furthest rooms are really far out there too! Does it seem huge?

We stayed at POR last year and were very close to a foot bridge that took us straight to the pool. My kids loved the pool and slide. We did walk over to FQ on our resort day and they loved that pool too. And now FQ has a kids splash pad! And the food court at POR is amazing!

That's the main reason for me right now too. My youngest will be just turning 2 when we go. She doesn't like to constantly be on the go anyhow, so I think throwing too much at her in one day will be too much for her. We are planning to not be rushed, going with the flow, and spending the evenings at the pool to hopefully bring her back down. lol

When we planned our first trip in 2014 we had 3 kids 4 and under. I had the same thoughts about PH...we don't need it because our kids are so little. But my mom insisted we all get it so we did and we loved it! We went again in 2015 and it was crucial because we had an 11 week old Mouseketeer with us (thanks to our Disney 2014 trip that was very magical). So in 2015 we had 4 kids 5 and under. We would do rope drop at the AM EMH park, tour for 3 hours then do QS lunch right at 11 before the crowds hit. Then we went back to the resort to rest/swim and get the baby out of the heat (early sep). We would go to a different non EMH park in the evening and use our fastpasses there. Sometimes we used our FP at the 1st park if we were just going to the 2nd park for dinner and fireworks. We mixed it up a bit but we really liked having the flexibility of the PH.

I'm experiencing "WDW nesting syndrome"!
Toward the end of each pregnancy I definitely had that strong "nesting" desire. The one where you ONLY want do things that relate to preparing for the new baby. Whether it was washing, folding and putting away baby clothes or making ahead meals for after delivery or cleaning out a closet... I HAD to do these prep activities. Anything else seemed a waste of time!
NOW..... I ONLY want to do things that relate to WDW planning! Keeping up with this thread, checking out the other sub-forums, reading online blogs, doing my Perk or Swagbucks (to earn $ for WDW) texting my BFF about WDW, watching DIS podcasts, jotting notes in my WDW 2016 notebook like "don't forget to.....", watching a Disney planning dvd for the 100th time.... It's like this trip is a baby on the way and our departure day is my "due date"!!!! This is crazy!! It's not like it's my 1st trip, for goodness sakes!!

Haha, last year at this time I was 7 months pregnant with #4 and needed something to distract me from the pregnancy! So I started following this thread even though we had no plan on returning in 2015. I got addicted and the Friday before release of FD my DH gave me permission to book. I wish we could do it again this year but we are going to the beach in June , there are so many places we want to take the kids...I wish we had budget for 2 big vacations every year then maybe we could do Disney annually.

So what does everyone think the best week in Sept is? How do you think crowds will be Sept 17-24?

We were there the 3rd week in Sept 2014 & we swore we'd never do it again due to the crazy and abnormally rude crowds. But... here I am, considering it

We were ther sep 20-28 2014 and the crowds got busier as the week went on. We talked to many people that said it was busier than previous years. Lines weren't that long because we had a good TP, but navigating through the crowds with a double stroller was hard. So in 2015 we went earlier, sep 7-15, checking in on Labor Day because we wanted to avoid any weekend crowds. It was better than 2014 but again it got busier later in the week. I think if we went again we would go a weeks earlier and just avoid MK on Labor Day weekend. We had friends there the week before Labor Day last year and they were posting pics of empty parks!

 

[slbgnb]

I'm so excited....it seems so official now. I really hope my TA is ON it......

 

[bella2117]

We are going to stick with AOA and pay the difference or maybe even see what room discount they will release. Heres to not sleeping on sunday lol. Thank god for Netflix.

 

[merry_nbright]

I'm going November 12th thru 19th, does that mean I get it for my entire trip?!